The CUBE
by Dasketchmaster
Summary: After battling the Egg Spider, Eggman's most recent creation, Sonic and his friends think that he's gone for good.  Three years later, though, they find out that Eggman has developed a new weapon... the C.U.B.E.
1. The Egg Spider Part 1

The C.U.B.E

Chapter 1: The Egg Spider

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own the rights to SEGA or any of its characters…

"Ha! Take THAT!" Sonic yelled as he blew up one of Eggman's robots with a Spin Dash. "You just got served… in a bowl… with a spoon!"

"Dude, Sonic…" Knuckles commented with a look of boredom on his face. "That's the tenth time you've said that – and yes, I have been counting! Can you at least come up with a new joke?"

"Not to complain or anything…" said Tails casually while hovering in midair beside them and Amy. "But he's not wrong. You might want to-"

His remark was interrupted by Amy. "Well, I don't care if it's getting old. I think it's adorable!"

"Ok then, I'll change it," Sonic spat out. "While I think of something, let's just figure out a way to open this big door thing. Eggman's behind it. I know he is." His attention focused on a massive red lever positioned on the wall about ten feet above the door. This was just one of the many chambers in the so-called Egg Palace, Eggman's newest fortress built in the clouds. Of course, Sonic and his friends were there to trash it and defeat Dr. Eggman.

"Tails, this is all you. Get up there and pull that switch."

"Aye aye!" Tails yelled down at him, already at the top of the room next to the lever. "Uhng!" With a grunt, he yanked the switch. To Sonic's delight, the metal door in front of him creaked open.

"Ok, guys, you ready?" Sonic said with a serious look on his face.

"Huh?"

"What lies at the end of this hallway could possibly be our most difficult challenge yet."

"Oh, come on. It can't be that hard. We'll crack that Eggman right open!" Knuckles yelled as he pounded his fists together.

"Oh, but it can," Sonic replied. "On the other side of this door could be our worst nightmare! We have to be careful, on high alert at all times…"

"Come ooon, Sonic!" Amy groaned. "It's not like we're going to lose!"

"I know!" Sonic cheered with a smile. "Just doing it for dramatic buildup." He bolted into the dark corridor, only to feel the ground sink beneath his foot.

"What the-"

It was a trap! The floor tile that he had stepped on pressed into the ground, causing the door he had just entered through to slam shut behind him, separating him from his friends. An alarm sounded and a red light started flashing above him. A tile broke off the wall and started gushing water, causing the corridor to start to fill up.

Sonic slapped his head. How could he have fallen for that? He was always setting off Eggman's traps and now he was stuck in this room filling up with water, which actually WAS his worst nightmare. He sank like a rock in water, and it didn't help that he was less than four feet tall.

He snapped out of his thoughts only to realize that the water level was now up to his chest. That was fast! He had to be quick if he wanted to avoid drowning. Of course, he _was_ the fastest thing alive. As fast as he could, he dashed to the other end of the hallway to see if there was an exit. Of course, the water slowed him down, and by the time he got to the end of the corridor, the water was at his neck. All he found was a door with a computer screen built into it with a touch keyboard. It read:

INSERT PASSCODE: _ _ _ _ _ _

"Hmm, let me think," Sonic sarcastically muttered to himself. "Eggman?"

INSERT PASSCODE: E G G M A N

ACCESS GRANTED! :P

Sonic quietly chortled to himself as the wall opened up into a huge circular chamber with a platform in the middle, letting the water splash into the seemingly endless pit in front of him. As soon as he had the chance, he kicked off the ground, shooting himself to the center platform. As he landed, a shadow formed on the ground, followed by a giant machine controlled by none other than Eggman himself. The contraption was just like a spider, with eight metallic legs sticking out of a sphere containing the cockpit. Eggman was positioned in a seemingly comfy chair with his hands hovering over numerous buttons lining the inside of the machine.

"Sonic the Hedgehog!" Eggman yelled. "We meet again!"

"Don't start that 'it ends here' kind of stuff with me, OK? We both know who's going to win! Oh, and by the way, 'Eggman' is not a good password."

"I wouldn't be so sure about the winner here! This Egg Spider is nearly indestructible!"

"You always say that, and then I start fighting you, and then you come close to killing me and then I transform into my epic Super Sonic form of epicness and cream the socks off of you."

"Well, you don't have the Chaos Emeralds with you now, do you?"

"No…"

"Alright then, it's fair game! My Egg Spider shall crush you into smithereens!"

"Creative name…" Sonic muttered under his breath.

"I heard that!" With that, Eggman opened a hatch on the Spider and shot a laser out of it. Sonic casually hopped out of the way and returned with a punch. He hurt his hand bad.

"Ow…" he whispered. "I gotta remember I'm not as strong as Knuckles…"

As Eggman replied with a "Ho ho ho ho ho," Sonic leaped up and kicked him in the face. "OW! NOT FAIR!" Eggman shouted while clutching his nose. "You'll pay now!" He pushed a button in the cockpit, extending the back of the machine over his head and concealing himself inside the sphere. He was now safe from Sonic's attacks. The Spider leaped away from Sonic and latched onto the wall. Sonic could hear a "Wave one! GO!" from inside the creation.

About a dozen robot minions dropped from the sky (don't ask how) and started ambushing Sonic. Dodging multiple energy blasts from the robots as well as the Egg Spider itself, he performed a stylish double front flip, did a somersault upon reaching the ground, and kicked a nearby robot up into the air from below. He then jumped off the ground, grabbed it, and slammed it into a couple of other henchmen standing below him. He snatched one of the laser guns from a broken robot and started to blast the others with it.

"Wow," Sonic said to himself as he decapitated a robot with a laser blast. "I never knew I was that flexible." Once all of the minions were deceased, the Egg Spider jumped off the wall and back to the center platform. Immediately upon its return, it swept a leg across the battlefield, knocking Sonic off his feet and launching him off the edge of the platform. As he was just about to fall, he grabbed on to the ledge.

The Egg Spider slowly drifted to the edge of the platform where Sonic was hanging. It lifted one of its pointed legs and positioned it over Sonic's head.

"Any last words?" Eggman asked from inside the machine. "How about 'Ooh, Eggman, you're so smart and powerful and a lot cooler than me, too! You're so awesome! Can I help you build Eggmanland?'?"

"That's... not… what I was… going… to say…" Sonic grunted.

"Well, it's what you should say if you want me to spare your life."

"…Never…"

"OK, have it your way!" As the sharpened foot was just about to penetrate Sonic's head, they both heard a shout:

"KNUCKLES SMASH!" Knuckles yelled as he dropped from the ceiling and swung his fist down on the Spider's leg, breaking it off. He was accompanied by Tails and Amy, who helped Sonic up.

"Nice timing, guys!" Sonic congratulated. "Great for that dramatic buildup."

"Well, we learned it from the master," Tails replied.

"Grr… I almost had you…" Eggman growled as he recovered from Knuckles's 'Knuckles Smash'. "Well, I still have seven more legs…"

"Tails! Scan!" Sonic yelled as he sprinted to the other side of the battlefield.

"Got it!" Tails yelled as he whipped out a hi-tech pair of glasses and stared at the Spider. While dodging Eggman's attacks, he stated, "Okay… Wow, that thing's got some serious armor! It's immune to almost all of our attacks!"

"Well, apparently not the Knuckles Smash…" Amy replied as she ducked under an incoming fireball.

"Yeah, well, its legs are the weak point," Tails muttered. "We could take those out easily, but even when they're all gone, it'll still be nearly impossible to get the body with Eggman inside. Also, it looks like it gets a new weapon every time one of its legs is cut off."

"Let me guess…" Amy yelled as she protected herself from a barrage of fireballs with her hammer. "The first one's fireballs?"

"Uhh… yeah… followed by poison jets, smokescreens, shruikens, bombs, some sort of wind power, and then… well… it doesn't say what the last one is…"

"Great!" Knuckles shouted. "It's probably a nuclear weapon of some sort…"

"Let's just work on getting the legs now and survival later… UNGH!" Sonic cried as he broke another leg off the Egg Spider. "There! Only… six more to go… Why do spiders have so many legs?"

"SONIC!" Knuckles and Amy yelled simultaneously. "Why do that? He's going to kill us!"

"Well," replied Tails. "If it gets stronger when we cut off its legs, that's obviously how we destroy it. And by the way, careful of the poison jets. We can step on it since we're wearing shoes, but if it contacts our skin, it could be fatal…"

"Fatal?" Knuckles shouted as he leaped away from a stream of poison. "That doesn't sound good… Wait a second! I know a way we can deal with this thing without having to cut its legs off! Amy, give me your hammer!"

"What? Why?" Amy screamed at Knuckles as she hid her weapon behind her.

"Well, with your powerful mallet combined with my strength, I can knock this thing off the platform!"

"Come on, Amy, fork it over!" Sonic requested as he drifted around the Spider in an attempt to dodge an attack.

"Fine, only because Sonic told me to…" Amy whimpered. She hesitated, and then shoved her hammer directly into Knuckles's stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

"OOF!... I don't… think… Sonic… would like that…" Knuckles gasped while clutching Amy's hammer with one hand and his stomach with the other. Amy just let out a snort and turned away.

Knuckles slowly stood up and accelerated toward the Egg Spider while acrobatically dodging multiple fireballs and jets of poison. With all his might, he pounded it with the hammer so powerfully that it made everyone's jaws drop. The impact not only caused another one of its legs to fly off and almost take out Sonic's head, but it also forced the Spider to skid all the way across the battlefield and right off the edge.

"YES!" Knuckles cheered.

To his horror, however, the Spider had used its remaining five legs to suspend itself between the outer wall and the edge of the platform, and it was now pulling itself up to safety.

"#$!" Knuckles yelled while slapping his head.

"Ooh, I hear language!" Amy replied. Knuckles grunted and gave Amy's hammer back to her.

"Try to attack me after this!" Eggman called out as the Spider released a small white pellet from its body. Upon impacting the ground, a giant cloud of smoke that covered the entire battlefield was formed, obscuring everyone's sight except Tails, who flew up above the smoke. He waited for an opening where he could attack, but he couldn't see anything that was happening.

Of course, that changed when the Spider swung a leg across the battlefield and knocked Knuckles directly off the edge. As Tails flew down to save him, Sonic and Amy tried to clear the smoke. Sonic tried Spin Dashing and Amy tried swinging her hammer around. She hit Sonic in the face.

"OW! Watch it, Amy!"

"Sorry!"

Tails then flew back onto the platform with Knuckles. A fireball flew directly at him, but he ducked just in time. Knuckles then picked up Tails and hurled him to where the fireball came from. Tails flew ten feet, skidded across the ground, hit a fireball, and then took out two of the Spider's legs. It now had three legs left.

"Uggh…" Tails groaned. "Was that really necessary?"

"Well, yeah!" Knuckles replied. "We took out two of its legs!"

"AHG!" Tails yelled as he rolled to the side in order to dodge an incoming shruiken. He instantly jumped up. "That thing could have taken my head off!" he shouted to Eggman.

"Hello? Villain!" Eggman shouted back.

The Egg Spider then leaped upwards and sent wave after wave of bombs and shruiken after the heroes. Sonic used his super speed to dodge them, Tails flew above Eggman to not get hit, Knuckles punched everything aside, and Amy blocked the weapons with her hammer.

As soon as he had the opportunity, Sonic leaped into the air and kicked another leg off of the Spider. It flew across the room and hit Tails.

"Uggh…" Tails moaned. "It's just not my day…"

The Egg Spider returned to the ground and closed itself in a ball of wind. After a couple of seconds, it shot out in all directions, throwing everyone backwards. Sonic flew off the edge, Tails was thrown next to Sonic and caught him, Knuckles grabbed on to the outer wall and climbed to safety, and Amy grabbed on to the edge of the battlefield before she could be chucked off.

Once Sonic and Tails recovered, Eggman sent a wave of bombs after them. Tails caught one and threw it back at the Spider, but it missed. Sonic effortlessly dodged them.

Meanwhile, Knuckles climbed up to the center of the ceiling and pushed off. He then dove straight into the Egg Spider's body. It didn't do any damage to the Spider itself, but it forced another one of its legs off.

"HA! Only one more left!" Knuckles yelled as he returned to the ground. "So Tails, what's the last weapon?"

"I still haven't found out yet…" Tails moaned. "I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"Time for my secret weapon!" Eggman stated. "I can only use it once, so I've got to make it count!"

"A one time use?" Sonic questioned. "That doesn't sound good…"

The Egg Spider positioned itself in the center of the battlefield. A hatch in the ceiling opened up and released a miniscule black speck into the air, barely the size of a marble. No one knew what it was. No one, that is, except for Tails, being the smartest one in the group.

"Dark matter!" Tails cried. "Everyone get to the edge of the platform!"

Seconds later, the tiny blob of dark matter extended outward so fast that it seemed like an explosion of blackness. It sent a shock wave through the air and seemingly shook the entire world. A black hole that was slightly smaller than the battlefield was formed and the pull was so great that everyone had to grab on to the outer edge of the arena in order to avoid being sucked to their doom. Tails tried to yell, "Just hang on! This thing will subside eventually!" but no one could hear him because the sound waves were being pulled into the hole of nothingness. Small segments of the platform, walls, and ceiling around them were breaking and being forced into the trap. No one thought that they would survive. They couldn't even breathe. The edge that they were holding onto was the only thing between them and their horrible death. It seemed like the end of the world…

However, the black hole eventually did go away after what seemed like hours. Everyone fell to the floor, panting with exhaustion, cuts and bruises all over them from where debris had struck them. Everyone was missing patches of fur and Amy's clothes were torn. Her hammer was also missing. They stood up and looked around. About half of the battlefield was gone. The ceiling was open and all of the walls had enormous holes in them, on the verge of collapsing. Tiny black specks of dust were scattered everywhere, especially in the center of the arena where the black hole was formed. The Egg Spider, which was clutching onto one of the walls, now returned to the battlefield.

"Wow… that… was… close…" Knuckles panted.

"Tell me about it…" Tails grunted. "I didn't think I could make it. Look at my fur! Clumps of it are missing! I'm glad my entire head didn't rip off…"

"Well…" replied Amy. "That's a pleasant thought. But look at me! My clothes are ruined! Look at this black dust everywhere! And my hammer…"

"I guess we should consider ourselves lucky…" Knuckles sighed.

"WAIT!" Amy yelled so suddenly that it made everyone jump a foot in the air. "…Where's Sonic?"

After a long pause, Tails and Knuckles scanned the remains of the platform. Sonic was nowhere to be found. Not even a trace of him was left. Tails looked at the edge of the battlefield that Sonic had been hanging on to only to find out that the chunk of platform was gone. It had been thrown into the black hole…

"He's… gone…" Tails whispered. "Dead…"


	2. The Egg Spider Part 2

Chapter 2 – The Egg Spider Part 2

**DISCLAIMER **(again…)**:** I do not own the rights to SEGA or its characters. Darn.

"Why'd you kill Sonic?" Amy screamed at Eggman. "You… you heartless person!"

"Oh, him?" Eggman calmly replied. "Come on. I'm not _that_ evil. He's not dead."

"Well, then," Tails shouted. "How could he get thrown into that black hole thing and still be alive?"

Eggman sighed. "That wasn't an actual black hole. If it was a black hole, the whole world would have caved in. Those things are powerful, you know. And if the world disappears, there'll be no place for me to build Eggmanland."

"So?" Knuckles grunted. "What did you do to him?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

"This is serious, fatso! He's my friend!"

"He'll be back in a little bit…"

Knuckles took a step forward. "OK, but if he's not back in ten seconds I'll pound the-"

His threat was suddenly cut short by a loud booming noise. The multiple tiny specks of black dust scattered around the battlefield were swept into the air, as if by wind. They collected near the ceiling. Out of nowhere, a second shock wave rippled through the air... and a second black hole was made out of the black specks. It looked exactly like the first one, but it didn't have any suction power. Everyone except Eggman simply stared at it, wondering what would happen next. A few seconds later, Sonic, along with Amy's hammer, were thrown out of the hole and onto the battlefield.

Tails, Knuckles, and Amy simultaneously shouted, "Sonic!" However, Sonic simply stood up and stared at them for a few moments. He then picked up Amy's hammer… and threw it directly at Tails.

"What the-"

Tails leaped out of the way just in time, the hammer missing him by inches. Knuckles punched it aside and it bounced back into Sonic's hand, almost as if it were a boomerang.

"Oooohkaay…"

"What's wrong with you, Sonic?"

_**" I AM NOT STO_ DESTROY_ DEH%#3445DESTROY433O_86DF!"**_

"What the heck?"

"Is he a robot or something?"

"Someone took too many crazy pills this !" Knuckles yelled as Sonic threw the hammer at him. He swatted it away, and once again it was pulled back into Sonic's hand.

"Well," Tails commented. "If we get rid of the last leg on the Spider, then…"

"Then what?" Knuckles replied. "It's not like—"

Sonic had thrown the hammer at Knuckles again, but this time it hit him in the head. Knuckles staggered around a little, then fell to the floor.

"Knuckles!" Tails yelled as he ran over to help him.

"YES! Direct hit!" Eggman yelled.

_**"GLBLTSZ463_DESTR_011010_$%2344534!" **_Sonic chanted.

"Well?" Amy yelled at Tails as Eggman tried to take her head off with a shruiken. "Is he okay?"

"He's unconscious…" Tails mumbled.

"So, let me get this straight:" Amy questioned. "We have to get rid of the last leg on the Egg Spider. Then, Knuckles has to use my hammer to knock it off the stage's edge because it won't be able to save itself like last time if it doesn't have any legs. But Knuckles is unconscious, so we have to protect him until he wakes up. We should take out the leg first, because all it can do when it doesn't have any legs is roll around and try to crush us. The two of us together can easily lift Knuckles and carry him around. Also, the whole time, Sonic is possessed and is trying to kill us with my hammer, so once Knuckles wakes up, we have to get the hammer from Sonic without hurting him. And we have to do the whole thing while _still_ staying away from the Egg Spider."

"Uh… yeah," Tails sighed. "Not the easiest thing we've ever done…"

"I know. I'm surprised I even had time to say all of that."

"Well, anyway, how are we going to get that other leg off without Knuckles's strength or your hammer? Neither of us are that powerful by ourselves… Even Sonic can get rid of those legs, but he's possessed…"

"I don't know… The only time one of us got a leg off that thing was when Knuckles threw you at it."

"Don't remind me," Tails groaned as he rubbed the back of his head.

"So? What are we going to do? Think of something!"

"What? Why me?"

"Well, you're the smartest one here!"

"Oh, so now you want me to think of a plan while you just stand around? Is that it?"

"Well, you should! You can think of stuff faster than me!"

"Well then, if you want me to come up with a plan, you'll have to protect Knuckles by yourself AND keep the Egg Spider and Sonic away from me while I think!"

"What?"

"I think better when I'm not distracted!"

"I'll get killed!"

"Well then maybe you should help me think of a plan!"

"Hey, guys!" Eggman yelled from the Egg Spider. "You two do know that I'm still here, right?"

"Shut it, fatty! We're in the middle of something!" Amy screamed at him.

"Well!" Eggman replied. "You're starting to sound like Knuckles!"

Just then, Sonic dashed at Amy from behind and hit her with "his" mallet, knocking her into Tails. At the same time, Eggman randomly launched a fireball at them to see what would happen. Of course, it missed both Amy and Sonic and hit Tails in the face.

_**"STRGNO345_DESTROY_$^^#$%^CHEESECAKE MUFFINS_DSFD&3435DFSDFSLINCK!"**_

"OW! Why does that always happen to me?" Tails angrily shouted while putting out a small fire on top of his head.

"You? I got hit with the hammer!" Amy groaned back.

"Ugh… Get off of me! I know how we can get that last leg off!"

"Really?" Amy asked as she slowly stood up. "What inspired you?"

"You getting hit with the hammer."

"WELL!" Amy shouted. "Maybe I should hit YOU with the hammer!"

"Come on! We're getting nowhere!"

"So anyways, what's your plan?" Amy wondered as she stepped out of the way of an incoming bomb.

"Sonic's being really aggressive right now and he has your hammer…" Tails started as he ducked under Amy's hammer being thrown at him. "Maybe we could trick him into hitting the Egg Spider!"

"You really think that would work?"

"AAAUUUGHHH!" Eggman yelled loudly while clutching his head. "I'm getting so bored just watching you two lovebirds talk!"

Tails and Amy both blushed and stepped away from each other.

"It's no fun trying to kill you if you don't even go on the offensive side!"

"Hey Tails," Amy whispered as Eggman started rambling on and on about his boredom. "So first, we get Sonic to get the Spider's leg off?"

"Yeah," Tails mumbled back. "Sonic usually tries to directly hit us, so if we get the Egg Spider between him and us, then we're good."

"OK then… Let's do it!"

Sonic and the Egg Spider were currently right next to each other. Eggman, realizing that Tails and Amy were finished discussing, sent Sonic after them.

_**"FLUGGER_LAD56645DFS_OLA$%^45^_NIGHTLIGHT SNEEZY METAL OINTMENT!_YSDDFNDFLUBKL;A_10010011010_;HE;;DS DESTROY TAILS_GOATIKIN SANDWICH_$#$%$#%$#%#$^DFVIRNOCXIJ_34953_DESTROY AMY_;!"**_ Sonic blubbered as he shot after Tails and Amy.

Tails quickly grabbed Amy and flew up above Sonic and over the Egg Spider. Sonic screeched to a halt and dashed after them with his hammer ready. The Spider was in perfect position… until Eggman realized what was going on and harmlessly jumped out of the way. Tails and Amy were so shocked that they both forgot that Sonic was still charging at them. The hammer hit them both at full power, causing them to get knocked backward and slammed into the outer wall.

They both started to fall into the seemingly endless pit around the platform. Eventually, Amy came to her senses in midair and realized that the pit had an end. Rows of ten-foot tall sharpened spikes lined the floor. They were partly see-through, glittering in the little light that made it to the bottom of pit and making Amy wonder what they were made out of. She managed to flip upright at the last second, spread her legs apart, and catch herself between two spikes, one leg on each.

"Wow," she muttered to herself. "That was too close."

A couple seconds later, Tails swooped over and carried Amy back up to the platform. When they touched down, the Egg Spider was standing over Knuckles, still unconscious. Sonic was walking over to the scene to dispose of him.

"NO!" Tails and Amy shouted simultaneously.

"Huh?"

Out of nowhere, Sonic, who was on the other side of the Spider, blasted directly through the Egg Spider's final leg, which dispatched from the body, flew into the air, and landed on Knuckles, waking him up.

"NO! MY GUMMY BEARS!" Knuckles yelled as he snapped awake and sat up. "Oh, it's just you two."

"Yeah…" Tails said slowly. "Really? Gummy bears?"

"So, what's the plan?" Knuckles asked.

"OK…" Amy sighed. "The Egg Spider's last leg is off and you're awake, so that's good. You need to use my hammer to knock the Spider off the edge of the platform like you did last time because it won't be able to save itself without any legs. The thing is, Sonic's still possessed and still has my hammer, so we have to get it from him without seriously hurting him."

"Also, we found out what's at the bottom of the pit," Tails stated. "Spikes. Dozens of them. They're made of diamond, too, so they can tear through anything… even the Egg Spider's body."

"Well, then," commented Knuckles. "We can do this! It'll be easy now that I'm helping you."

"Maybe his giant ego will help us, too," Amy whispered to Tails. They both broke out in laughter.

"Hey, I heard that! You two are !" Knuckles screamed as the Egg Spider tried to roll over him and crush him. It missed by inches.

"OK," Knuckles panted as he recovered. "Let's get this over with before I get killed." With that, he dashed straight at Sonic, leapt into the air, and yelled, "KNUCKLES SMASH!" just as Sonic carelessly stepped out of the way. He fell flat on his face.

"DANG IT! I forgot he's so fast! We'll never get him!"

"Well, maybe if speed doesn't work, brains will…" Tails thought aloud.

"But how? It's not like we can find an easy way to outsmart him," Amy sighed.

"Maybe we can… Knuckles! Go over to the side! Amy and I will distract Sonic. Then, you can take the hammer from behind him," Tails commanded.

Tails and Amy sprinted in front of Sonic and started to wave their arms around and make faces at him. As Sonic glanced over at them, Knuckles knocked him over and snatched up the hammer. He then jumped toward the Egg Spider… only to realize that the hammer had zipped out of his hand and back to Sonic's.

"What the-"

Tails and Amy watched as Knuckles flew directly over the Egg Spider and grabbed on to the edge of the battlefield before he fell completely off. Amy rushed over to help him. Tails, however, took out his scanning goggles and stared at Amy's hammer as Sonic yelled, _**"AFLKSDALN263_10101010_#$%#ADLNALJA_GRASSHOPPER SANDALS!"**_

As Amy and Knuckles returned to his side, Tails read his new information aloud. "OK… Since the hammer was in the black hole along with Sonic, they now share some kind of bond. That means that the hammer is also kind of possessed, even though it's an inanimate object. Luckily, since the Egg Spider was the source of the black hole, both Sonic and the hammer will return to normal once we knock the Spider off the platform and destroy it. Anyways, this special bond that Sonic and the hammer share means that the farther away the hammer gets from Sonic, the stronger its pull back to Sonic will be."

"So what do we do?" Knuckles questioned. "Got any ideas?"

"Well, one…" Tails mumbled. "I don't know if it will work, though."

"So? It's worth a shot!"

Tails sighed. "OK. So, the farther away the hammer gets from Sonic, the more it will try to get back. However, if all of us hold on to it at the same time, then it will be harder for it to get back to Sonic, meaning that we can get it farther away. So then-"

"Got it," Knuckles interrupted. "I know exactly what I need to do."

"Me, too," Amy replied.

Tails and Amy ran to the other side of the battlefield to distract Sonic like they did last time. This time, however, Knuckles grabbed it with both hands instead of one. Then, Tails and Amy rushed over to Knuckles and also grabbed on to the hammer. They slowly stepped about ten feet backwards, even though they could have gone farther. The hammer was making a great effort to return to its master's hand, but since six hands were grabbing it instead of one, it didn't have a chance.

Out of nowhere, Knuckles shouted, "HEY, EGGHEAD! OVER HERE, STUPID!"

"Oh, no you DIDN'T!" Eggman yelled as he rolled over toward Knuckles to crush him. Everyone grabbing the hammer now moved back another ten feet. Sonic was just standing around, wondering what they were doing.

"One… two… THREE!" Tails yelled. Just as the Egg Spider rolled directly between Knuckles and Sonic, Tails and Amy pushed Knuckles forward. At this point, the hammer would have been thrown from Knuckles's hands and back into Sonic's, but Knuckles was traveling in Sonic's direction, so the hammer was actually making him go faster. Knuckles jumped into the air and yelled one final "KNUCKLES SMASH!" as he slammed the hammer into the Egg Spider's body. Knuckles's strength combined with the power of Amy's hammer ALSO combined with the hammer trying to go directly through the Egg Spider to get to Sonic resulted in the most powerful attack anyone on the battlefield had ever seen. The Egg Spider flew backward so fast that it actually broke the sound barrier and sent a shock wave through the air that caused everyone except Sonic (since he was used to it) to fall over. It then crashed into the solid steel wall so powerfully that it made a dent three feet deep in it before falling down the pit.

Everyone who was still on the platform glanced over the edge to see what would happen to the villain (Or in Sonic's case, his master).

"Do you think he'll get lucky like he always does?" Amy whispered to the group.

"I have no idea…" Tails replied.

_**"Glbltz…"**_ Sonic mumbled.

"He'll probably get lucky…" Knuckles commented. "He always finds a way to survive this kind of thing…"

However, it seemed like Eggman's luck had run out. The cockpit of the Egg Spider landed directly on top of an especially sharp spike. The body of the Spider was instantly impaled. The spike stuck directly through it and came out the other end. And Eggman was still inside.

Everyone but Sonic cringed. Sonic fell over and started twitching. Amy's hammer stopped trying to return to Sonic.

"Oh, man…" Tails mumbled. "There's no way he survived that…"

Sonic stopped twitching and stood up. "What happened…?"

"SONIC!" Amy screamed as she dashed over to hug him.

Tails explained the entire story from beginning to end. When he reached the part about Eggman getting impaled, Sonic quietly peered over the edge of the platform only to immediately cringe and turn back to Tails.

"Yeah," he concluded. "He's dead."

"Well?" Knuckles said quietly. "What do we do now?"

"Let's just get home," Amy suggested. "I'm sick of this place even though we've only been here an hour."

With that, the team made their way back to the entrance to return home and celebrate the fact that Eggman would never bother them again. They thought that the day would never come…

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the pit, a hatch opened in the Egg Spider's impaled body and Eggman stumbled out with numerous cuts and bruises scattered all over his body.

"Oh, man…" he muttered to himself. "That was a close one."

He reached back inside the Egg Spider and fumbled around until he found his emergency jetpack. "Good thing I installed this." He strapped it on and silently flew up toward the platform, his revenge already completely planned out…


	3. Three Years Later

Chapter 3: Three Years Later/The Search Begins

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own the rights to Sega or any of its characters, even though that would be epic.

Wow. Lots of dialogue in this chapter. Sorry it took me so long, I've been really busy with school and stuff.

"To three years of Eggman leaving us alone!" Tails cheered as he, Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, and Cream clinked glasses of lemonade together in Sonic's backyard. Shadow was present, but he wasn't a cheerful kind of person (or hedgehog), so he sat in a chair on the other side of the yard.

"Come on, Mr. Shadow, join us!" Cream shouted to him.

"Hmph."

Amy sighed. "Shadow's just a party pooper, that's what he is."

"Well?" Sonic questioned. "When are we going to start the party? I'm SO HUNGRY!"

"You'll get your fill of chili dogs in a minute, you big tub of lard!" Knuckles shouted as he left to get the snacks for their third annual "Eggman Not Annoying The %$! Out Of Us" party.

"Tub of lard?" Rouge asked.

"He always calls me that when I eat," Sonic replied. "He picked up the tradition a while ago when I still had that big old pot belly from eating a bunch of chili dogs and all that, but now I run enough to stay skinny."

"Ah."

As Knuckles came back with the snacks, Sonic started to shove food down his throat, Amy, Rouge, and Cream slathered on some sunscreen, and Tails reached for his music player. Shadow quietly got up from his chair and aimlessly wandered around the yard and stomped on flowers.

"Oh, wow, these are good chili dogs…"

"So what music do you guys want to hear?"

"Only SPF 25? Try my 60…"

"DIE, FLOWERS, DIE!"

"Hey, don't eat it all! This is all we have!"

"Do you want country or jazz or rock and roll or something?"

"I like country…"

"MWAHAHAHAHAHALOLROFLHAHAHAHA!"

"That's it, Shadow…" Rouge concluded. "I'm getting you a therapist."

Shadow froze with his foot hovering over an especially colorful flower. "Come on, can't I just crush this one? It's so colorful, like it's begging me to kill it!"

"NO, SHADOW!"

(Insert awkward silence here.)

"Fine…"

Everyone stared directly at Shadow and Rouge for about thirty seconds. Amy then screamed, "Hey, Sonic, watch this!" as she dove into the pool. "Did you watch? Did you? Did you?"

"Why do you even have a pool in your backyard?" Cream asked Sonic.

"I… don't… know…" Sonic mumbled.

(Insert second awkward silence here.)

"Oooohkay then…" Cream replied softly. "Does anyone want some cake?"

"ME!" everyone else but Shadow yelled simultaneously.

Cream slowly turned around and started walking into the house, but when she was almost inside, Knuckles yelled, "WHAT THE HECK?" as he pointed at the sky.

"WHAT THE HECK?" everyone else yelled as they saw what he was pointing at. A giant, meteor-like object was falling straight toward them… except it wasn't a meteor. It was grey, almost robotic.

A split second later, the object crash landed in Sonic's pool and splashed water over everyone. Even Cream, who was at least thirty feet away, got water on her. No one dared to move a muscle. It wasn't like anything like this had happened in the past three years…

For the next five minutes, the object sat in Sonic's pool and glowed. Nobody even talked until Rouge broke the silence by saying, "Hey, wasn't Amy in the pool a couple minutes ago?"

"Oh, man…" Tails replied. "I think so…"

"Where is she?"

"Did it crush her?"

Just then, Amy walked out of the back door of Sonic's house with a plate of cupcakes in her hand only to see everybody except her staring at this random meteor thing in the pool. Sonic, Tails, Cream, and Rouge whipped around to see if she was okay.

"What the f-f-f-f-f-f-f…" Amy whispered as she stared at the object.

"I can hear you, you know…" Cream muttered. "…I'm right next to you."

"Yeah, I know, but what is all this?"

"Heck if I know!" Knuckles shouted from the other side of the yard. "Should we investigate?"

"I guess…"

With that, the group closed in on the object and began searching for anything that would help indicate what it was. Sonic just stared at it. Rouge, Amy, and Cream circled around it to find clues. Tails tried scanning it, but nothing came up. Shadow stood ten yards away and stomped on flowers when no one was looking. Knuckles was the first one to be brave enough to poke the mysterious… thing.

As soon as Knuckles's hand contacted it, the top half of it literally exploded, sending flaming chunks of debris everywhere and causing everyone except Shadow to run for cover since he was already far away. In the center of the bottom half was a glowing blue robotic sphere, floating in midair. Sonic slowly approached it and yelled, "What in the name of rings is this thing?"

**"I AM THE BETA. DO NOT DEFY ME OR YOU WILL FACE THE CONSEQUENCES," **the ball uttered. "**PREPARE TO DIE, WORTHLESS PEASANTS."**

"How does it do that without a mouth?" Rouge yelled.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…I don't know…" Tails replied. "Maybe some robotic voice box…"

**"THE WAY I TALK DOES NOT MATTER. WHAT MATTERS IS THAT THE BETA WILL AVENGE. YOU SHALL ALL DIE. THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN FIVE SECONDS."**

"Yeah, well… wait a minute, WHAT THE HECK?" Amy shouted.

"HIT THE FLOOR!" Cream commanded.

Everyone crouched as low as they could as the Beta started to vibrate violently. Instead of exploding into a ball of fire, though, it fell to the ground and burst open, releasing at least a hundred missiles, which spiraled into the air.

"HOLY SH-"

"O-M-FREAKIN'- G!"

Chaos broke out. The waves of missiles started to shoot down at the team and bombard Sonic's backyard. Some hit the house and blew up parts of the roof. Some exploded in midair before they hit the ground, sending sparks everywhere. Some hit small trees, causing them to fall over and/or burst into flames. Some splashed into the pool, their explosions sending geysers of water at everyone while they frantically ran around in circles, trying to find places the weapons couldn't hit. The last missile came down about five seconds after the others and wedged itself into the Beta itself. When it exploded, it started a chain reaction that blew up the Beta, which sent a fiery shockwave across the yard that knocked everyone over and ignited all of the missiles that hadn't blown up on their own.

After he was sure that there were no more active weapons nearby, Sonic cautiously stood up and examined his destroyed property. Most of the meteor-like object was now debris, floating around in the foot of water still remaining in the pool. There wasn't even a trace of the Beta still remaining. All of the trees had fallen over except one, which was on fire. His house was a complete wreck, with holes in the roof and dents in the walls. Along with everyone else, he had second and third-degree burns all over his body. Knuckles, Tails, Cream, and Amy were all unconscious.

He sighed as Shadow and Rouge recovered from the assault and stood upright. "How long will it take to revive everyone?"

"Probably only five minutes or so…" Rouge guessed.

"Hmph." Shadow muttered as he examined a missile wedged into the ground. "This missile didn't explode. It's made of plastic."

"Plastic?" Sonic asked as he walked over to the site.

"Outta my way…" Rouge said. She pushed Sonic out of the way and uprooted the fake missile. Then, she bent it until it broke, only to find a slip of paper inside. "Who wants to read it?"

"How did you know that was in there?" Sonic thought out loud.

"Lucky guess."

Sonic snatched up the slip of paper and skimmed over the writing inside. His eyes slowly widened. "Wake up the others," he requested. "They need to hear this."

Five minutes of pouring cold water on animals' faces later, everyone was stumbling over to Sonic to find out what the news was.

"Ugh… Am I dead?" Tails mumbled.

"Umm… no, not really," Knuckles replied. "At least, I don't think so."

"Hey, listen to this!" Sonic shouted at the group.

"OK, go ahead…" Cream requested. "Is it important?"

"You tell me," Sonic muttered. He cleared his throat and started to read. "_Dear Sonic and whoever else that may be near him at the moment… It's been a while since you heard about me. Three years, in fact. It's not like I wasted all that time recovering from my close call with death, though. I sat down for about a day and got started on my next project, the CUBE. What is the CUBE, you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. The CUBE is a highly advanced, state of the art weapon capable of destroying entire cities with minimal effort. It can think for itself and do almost everything that you can do now. In less than a week, it will be at full power and I can wipe out the entire world to build Eggmanland. I will shut it off IF you bring the seven Chaos Emeralds to my recently built Egg Station before then. If you don't… well, then, you're all doomed. Your enemy, Dr. Robotnik (Or Eggman, if you want to call me that. Who started that anyway?)_"

"Okay…" Rouge commented.

"I thought he was dead," Amy said with discomfort.

"Well, duh. Everyone did."

"So, what do we do?" Tails asked.

"I don't know…" Sonic replied. "How about we just get the Emeralds and see what happens?"

"Sounds good to me…" Knuckles agreed.

"I'm on it!" Tails yelled. He dashed into his nearly destroyed house next door, leaving everyone to wonder what the heck he was doing.

A minute or so later, he emerged from the house carrying some kind of GPS-like… thing. "Good thing this isn't broken…" Tails panted. "With this thing I made, eight or nine years ago I think, we can find out where the Chaos Emeralds are."

"So? Where are they?" almost everyone asked simultaneously.

"Give it time to boot up!" Tails yelled.

"Fine!" For the next fifteen seconds, everyone simply stood around, anxious to know where they needed to go.

"…Got it!" Tails shouted with joy. "OK, the first one is in… Mushpepper Forest."

"That seems easy enough," Amy cheered.

"…Inside the Great Tree."

"Huh? What's that?"

"Exactly."

"Anyways…" Cream interrupted. "The Great Tree is this gigantic, all natural tree that grows in the middle of Mushpepper Forest. The Emerald must be inside there."

"Okay," Knuckles said anxiously. "Where's the second one?"

"Ummm…" Tails stuttered. "…Monolith Cave."

"Oh, great," Amy groaned. "I hate that place. Especially the bats…"

"What!" Rouge yelled with her fist clenched.

"Never mind."

"Anyways, the Emerald is at the heart of the cave, so that one alone will probably take us almost a day," Tails informed.

"Yeah, yeah. Tell us what's next!" Sonic requested.

"The third one is in… Cactus Desert."

"Great! My home turf!" Rouge bragged.

"I thought your home turf was the caves…" Shadow recalled.

"Well, the Emerald's probably in a pyramid of some sort, and I'm good at getting around those things."

"Yeah, you're right…"

"Anyways," Tails continued. "The fourth one is in… uh… oh, crap."

"Where is it?" Cream asked.

"Eggman has it… It's in this base of his called the Egg Stadium. We'll have to go there to get it from him…"

"The Egg Stadium?" Knuckles questioned. "Sounds like a lot of fighting!"

"Yeah… Maybe I can hack into the Egg Stadium's computer and find out what we're up against. Sound good?"

"Sure."

Tails started pressing various buttons on his tracking device while saying things like "Data overdrive corruption" and "Central target file page" and other things that no one understood. Eventually, though, he found what he was looking for.

"Okay," he announced. "I got into the enemies' files, but I can't unblock them completely. Here's what I found." He showed the tracking device to the rest of the group.

_E _ _ _ _ _ D _ _ __

__ _ G _ _ _ _ _:_

_Y _ __

__ _ N __

__ _ E _ _ _ T _ _ _ O D _ - _ _ R _, W _ T_ R_, _ _ R _ _, A _ _, _ _ G H _ _ _ N __

Everyone stared at the screen for two minutes or so. Tails broke the silence by saying, "I think that one word's 'water', but I don't know what the others are…"

"Well, it's not like we know…" Sonic told him.

"Anyways, want me to go on to the next one?"

"Sure, why not?"

After a pause, Tails noted, "The fifth Emerald is in Reef Ocean…" Everyone was silent except for Sonic, who uttered a bad word.

"I hate water…" Sonic mumbled.

"We know," Tails replied. "Anyways, the sixth one is in… I mean _on_, Mount Steep. You know, that really tall mountain?"

"Yep."

"I wonder if I'll be good at that…" Knuckles wondered.

"Let me get this straight," Shadow blurted out. "So far, the Emeralds are in a forest, cave, desert, enemy base, ocean, and mountain."

"Yeah." Tails shot back. "So?"

"The last one's in Grumble Volcano. I know it."

"Uhh… yeah… that's right…"

"Exactly."

"Well," Sonic stated. "We really have our work cut out for us this time."

"Yep," Knuckles agreed. "By the way, how exactly are we going to get to the places with the Emeralds? We don't really have enough time to walk…"

"Easy. We can take the Tornado," Tails replied.

"Umm…" Amy mumbled. "It's kind of small for seven…"

"Hmm, you're right…"

"What should we do?"

"I got it!" Tails shouted. Everyone paused to see what his idea was. "We all have all these burns on us and stuff from the Beta, right? Well, for the rest of the day, we could all wait for them to heal a little while I modify the Tornado to fit us!"

"Are you sure, Tails?" Cream whined. "Don't you want to heal your burns, too?"

"Meh. It's okay."

"Well then," Knuckles concluded. "I guess that's it, then."

"Yep," Tails said with delight. "Everyone, sit down and rest. We leave in the morning."


	4. The Great Tree

Chapter 4: The Great Tree

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own SEGA or any of its characters. I'm so jealous.

**NOTE:** From now on, before each chapter, I will provide some author's notes. They say stuff about things like my opinions on the chapter, upcoming stuff in the same story, etc.

**ACTUAL AUTHOR'S NOTES: **And so, our heroes embark on their journey to recover the Emeralds and stop Eggman. This chapter is about the first part of their search through Mushpepper Forest. In class about five months ago, my partner and I had to write a short story with our weekly spelling words. (You know how lots of teachers do that…I think…) My partner thought of a story where a mushroom and a pepper have a mushpepper child, hence the name of the forest in this story. The entire story is now officially planned out on paper. There will be exactly 30 chapters. In case you want a preview, here are all of the chapter names in order:

Egg Spider p1 (duh)

Egg Spider p2 (also duh)

Three Years Later/the Search Begins (duh… again…)

The Great Tree (I don't even need to say duh here, do I?)

Rabbit Season

Digging Deeper

Flight of the Mutant Two Tailed Fox Thing

Plunder the Pyramid

Flatline

Dark Confrontation

Note (yes, that's actually the name of the chapter…)

Opposites Attract. Then, They Kill You.

Taste the Rainbow… of Death

No One Expected This…

Don't Suffocate!

Let's Play Battleship

Up the Mountain

Down the Mountain

Grumble, Grumble

Friend or Foe

Path to Hell

Third Time's the Charm

Note…Again… (See comment 12 chapter names above)

Rematch Revamped

Five Man Army

Shattered Promises

Backstabbed

Raising the Stakes

Into the Inferno

The Last Stand (That's all I'll tell for now. Sit back and enjoy the chapter!)

"So, Tails," Amy yawned as she sluggishly walked into Tails's backyard. "How's the Tornado coming along?" She walked inside the open garage only to see Tails slumped over and sleeping in the cockpit of the revamped plane. The plane itself was extraordinary. It was over twice as large as it had been the night before, with a giant glass dome looming over the driver's seat as well as the six passenger seats.

"Wow. How does he do that?"

"Huh?" Amy whined as she whipped around. Rouge was standing next to her.

"How did you-"

"I'm a thief, remember? I'm good at sneaking up on people."

"Oh, right."

"HEY TAILS, WAKE UP!" Rouge shouted at him.

"Whazzat!" Tails yelled as he snapped awake. He slowly rubbed his eyes and glanced around until he spotted Amy and Rouge looking up at him.

"Oh, it's just you. Sorry I was sleeping, I've been up all night…"

"It's okay," Amy replied. "Are you done with the plane yet?"

"Almost. Just have a few minor modifications. I have to add the weapons and stuff."

"Weapons? That's kind of a different style for you…"

"Yeah, but I think we'll need them. So far, I have a forcefield for defensive purposes, machine guns for rapid fire, and this ion cannon in case we have to take down something really big. Adding the spike shooters will probably take another hour or so…"

"OH, YEAH!" Knuckles suddenly shouted out of nowhere as he smashed through Tails's fence and into the backyard.

"Aww, come on, Knuckles!" Tails moaned as he face palmed. "I paid six hundred bucks for that fence!"

"Sorry," Knuckles apologized smoothly. "I drank some Kool-Aid this morning. I couldn't resist."

"You know, now that I think of it…" Amy noticed. "He does kind of look like the Kool-Aid Man."

"Yeah, he's red, too!" Rouge squealed with delight.

"Okay! There are too many people in my backyard! I need some space to build the last weapon on this thing! You guys need to leave for now." Tails requested.

"Fine by me, but what do we do while we wait for you to finish?" Knuckles asked.

"Uh… I don't know. How about you wake up everyone else and pack snacks for the trip?"

"Dibs on waking up Sonic!" Amy shouted as she sprinted out of the backyard and toward Sonic's house next door.

"Alright then…" Rouge said with her hand on the back of her head.

Ten minutes later, everyone except Tails was now awake, at Cream's house, and hunched over a medium-sized box of miscellaneous snack foods.

"This is all we have?" Sonic asked, his stomach growling.

"Well, yeah," Cream replied softly. "Since the missiles from the Beta pretty much destroyed all of our houses, these are all of the snacks we have that aren't destroyed…"

"Yep!" Rouge recalled. "So, anyways, Sonic, what was it like sleeping next to an active missile?"

"Oh, ha, ha," Sonic said in a sarcastic tone. "…I threw it outside."

"But isn't it sensitive to that kind of stuff?"

"…Sort of…well…it blew up that one tree that survived the attack…" Sonic mumbled. He quickly changed the subject. "Are we going to get some snacks or what?"

"Fine. Here," Amy said as she dumped out the food onto the floor.

"I CALL THE GUMMY BEARS!" Knuckles screamed as he literally tackled the single packet of gummy bears lying on the ground.

"Ooohkay…" Cream whispered to herself, her hand about to grab the pack. "…I guess I'll just have fruit snacks…"

"I'll take the beef jerky," Sonic and Rouge said simultaneously.

"Can I have the jerky?"

"No…"

"Come on, give me the jerky!"

After half an hour of wrestling each other to the ground, everyone except Shadow had chosen exactly one snack for the trip.

"Shadow? Don't you want something?"

"I don't need food. I'm artificial."

"Oh, right…"

"You know, Tails is probably almost done with his weapon installing. Should we go back?"

"Sure, right after we track down Knuckles."

"Aww, come on! Where'd he go this time?"

"OH, YEAH!" Knuckles blared as he crashed through Cream's kitchen door with a pitcher of Kool-Aid in his hand. After brushing himself off, he requested, "Can I bring this?"

"Uhh… okay…" Cream murmured.

"Then let's go!" Knuckles yelled joyfully as he charged out the front door.

After about three minutes of silence, Cream commented, "That guy owes me about two thousand dollars now…"

"Huh," Shadow said quietly. "You'd think that he owes you more than that…"

Meanwhile, with another "OH, YEAH", Knuckles punched another hole in Tails's fence right next to the one he made before. "So, you done yet?"

"KNUCKLES!" Tails screamed. "You could have just gone through the other hole you made!"

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"

The conversation was then interrupted by everyone else calmly stepping through the holes in Tails's fence and into the backyard. "So, you done yet?"

Tails just sighed. "Yes. And by the way, have I ever thanked you guys for not being Knuckles?"

"Yeah," Rouge answered. "Five times."

"I thought it was eight!" Sonic argued.

"Maybe it was eleven…" Amy joined in.

"I'm pretty sure it was five."

"I distinctly remember sixteen," Shadow said.

"It was eight!"

"No, eleven!"

"FIVE!"

"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU! IT WAS SIXTEEN!" Shadow yelled as he charged up a sphere of energy in his hand. "DON'T MAKE ME USE THIS!"

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW? YOU LOST YOUR MEMORY, REMEMBER?"

"NO, I DON'T REMEMBER! I LOST MY MEMORY!"

"HOLY MOLY, GUYS, IT WAS JUST A QUESTION!" Tails shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone who was arguing stopped.

"Just get on the plane. It's time to go, anyways."

"Yay!" Sonic whooped as he leapt onto the plane. "I call shotgun!"

"There's not even a shotgun seat…"

"I don't care!"

Tails closed his eyes for a moment. "Someone quickly remind me about the many benefits of having friends…"

"I can't think of any," Shadow told him.

"Let's just go already!"

"Okay! We're leaving!" Tails said as he pushed a giant red button in the plane. Numerous lights on the control panel instantly lit up, and the plane suddenly lurched forward and rose into the air.

"Alright! Next stop, Mushpepper Forest!"

Roughly half an hour later, the party touched down on the outskirts of the forest. Tails flipped a switch, which turned off the engines and lifted the glass dome around the seats so everyone could get out. "Alright, here we are!"

As Rouge exited the plane, she asked, "Why didn't we just park right next to the Great Tree?"

"Well," Tails replied. "I can't really get in with all of those other trees blocking the way. We'll have to get there on foot."

"Oh, joy."

"This better be quick," Shadow groaned as he stepped on the solid earth. "I don't really care for WHAT THE-"

"Huh?" Tails yelled as he whipped around only to see a large tiger leap at him. He dived out of the way just in time.

"A tiger? In Mushpepper Forest?" Sonic questioned. "I didn't think those lived here…"

"They don't!" Tails said as he recovered from the attack and stood up.

"Well, then, what is it doing here?"

"I don't know!"

The tiger turned around, angry that it had failed to maul Tails. Instead of pouncing on him, however, it then shot a deadly stream of fire out of its mouth. Knuckles ran in front of Tails and swatted the flames away. The tiger leaped over both of them and tried to decapitate Amy. She retaliated by whipping out her hammer and striking the tiger on the head. "HA! Take that!" she yelled.

The tiger didn't even flinch. Instead, it raised a paw and knocked the mallet out of Amy's hand. As it was about to scorch her with a pillar of fire, Rouge jumped on its back, only to be thrown off. The tiger then aimed for Rouge and shot lightning out of its eyes. Rouge ducked and performed a stylish tornado kick on the tiger, which gave up on her and jumped toward Shadow. Instead of moving out of the way, though, the target grabbed the tiger by the muzzle and threw it to the ground. After half a second of being pleased with himself, he shot a ball of energy at its stomach, which caused it to vaporize into thin air.

Everyone stood around and regained their energy except for Cream and Sonic, who had been the only ones that hadn't been involved in the short fight.

"So," Amy grunted. "Remind me why the heck that tiger could shoot fire from its mouth and lightning from its eyes…"

"It might have been possessed by Eggman," Tails guessed. "He probably knows we're here."

"Is everyone ready to actually go in the forest now?" Sonic asked. Everyone except Cream and Shadow gave him a cold glare. Cream just replied, "Sure", and Shadow said nothing.

"Well then, let's be on our way!" He strolled into the forest, the rest of the gang following him.

"By the way, Tails, is this the right way?"

"Uhh, yeah," Tails answered. "Since the tree is in the smack center of the forest, and we parked on the west side, we should be heading east, which is where we're going. Just try to keep moving straight forward and we should be there in about twenty minutes."

"Jeez, all I needed was a yes or no…"

"Oh, sorry."

"That's Tails for you," Knuckles explained. "Making an entire chronicle out of a one-word answer!"

Tails just groaned and grumbled, "Why don't we just keep walking?"

"Fine."

The seven adventurers continued on until they came to a small clearing. Sonic stood around for a minute or so before saying, "Okay, what's the deal? Isn't some pack of bad guys supposed to jump out at us now?"

"It depends," a voice on the far end of the clearing said quietly.

"What?" Sonic and all of his friends instantly whipped around and entered their fighting stance, for they had all recognized the mysterious voice as Eggman's. Sure enough, the doctor was sitting in his egg car thing, floating around on the other side of the clearing.

"So, Sonic, long time no see!" he cackled. "How has the last three years been?"

"Eggman!" Sonic shouted.

"Yeah, I know that…"

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, I kind of took over all of the animals in the forest so they would team up and murder you so I wouldn't have to deal with you anymore. You almost got me killed, and I don't want to experience that again."

"And…"

"…And that's it. GO, MY LITTLE EVIL ANIMAL MINIONS!" Eggman commanded as he pushed a button in his hovercraft. At least fifteen tigers leaped into the clearing from the forest and started growling at the party.

"That's…not…good…" Cream noticed.

"Oh, really?" Knuckles replied sarcastically.

"Smell ya later!" Eggman chortled as his vehicle disappeared into the forest.

"So, what do we do?" Rouge asked.

"Run?" Sonic suggested.

"That's your answer to everything," Tails told him.

"Well, it's not like we can fight all of them. You saw how strong they are!"

Tails silently glanced around the clearing. The tigers were slowly advancing on the crew. Out of nowhere, every last one of them broke into a run directly at them.

"Yeah, let's get out of here!'

"I agree!" Being the slowest runners, Amy and Cream grabbed onto Sonic's and Shadow's arms respectively, the group sprinted away from the clearing, and the chase began.

Less than two seconds later, another clearing was reached, this one with an enormous tree trunk in the center.

"OH MY GOD!" Sonic, Shadow, Amy, and Cream yelled at the same time, for they were traveling at over seven hundred miles an hour directly at the tree. They turned away and avoided the massive trunk just in time, only to trip over a root and fall to the ground with a harsh thud.

They turned right side up, watching as, after Tails, Rouge, and Knuckles entered the clearing, each and every one of the tigers slammed into the tree headfirst with a clunking sound and exploded into dust. The forest was once again calm.

After a pause, Tails mentioned, "They must not corner well…"

"I second that statement," Sonic agreed. "Man, that was a big tree trunk!"

"Well, duh! We're here! I present to you, the Great Tree of Mushpepper Forest!"

Everyone stood around gawking at the eight hundred foot tall tree that towered over them except for Tails, who already knew what it looked like. The trunk itself was so wide that everyone present could have joined hands and wrapped around it and still not even covered a fifth of it. Only one thought ran through their heads: "Holy moly, that's a big tree…"

"Holy moly, that's a big tree…" Amy said as she backed up to try to see the top of the gigantic plant.

"You can say that again," Knuckles answered.

"Holy moly, that's a big tree…" Amy repeated.

"Okay, I didn't mean that literally!"

"So, is the Emerald in there?"

"Yeah, my tracking device is going bonkers!" Tails shouted as he held up his invention. It was violently vibrating and emitting tiny electric sparks. "We're close. I know it."

"Alright, so how do we get in?" Rouge asked.

"LET'S BURN IT!" Shadow screeched as he gathered orbs of energy in his hands. "!"

"Let's not," Tails replied as he nudged Shadow in the back, causing him to lose his concentration and the energy in his palms to scatter. "This thing is a natural wonder. Destroying it is not an option."

"Why don't we look for some kind of place we can get in through…" Cream announced.

"Good idea."

"Alright," Amy started. "Knuckles, Rouge, Tails, and Cream can search the top since all of them can either fly or climb up walls. Sonic, Shadow and I can get the bottom part."

"Sounds good."

Everyone broke up and started to search the tree for a hole. Although the search was valiant and the entire group was committed to the cause, nothing had been found after an hour. That changed when Knuckles shouted from the top quarter of the tree, "OH, YEAH!"

"What is it?" Tails yelled from a good hundred feet away.

"I found an opening… but it's not very big…"

Rouge, Tails, and Cream gathered near him and peered into the tiny hole that lead into the tree. The end of the passage couldn't be seen.

"That's a definite entrance," Knuckles concluded.

"But that hole's barely a foot in diameter…" Rouge observed.

"Yeah, you're right…"

"I know," Tails sighed. "It's not like any of us could fit in there… except for Cream…"

"What?" Cream said. She looked up only to see that everyone present was glancing at her. "Okay, fine…" She cautiously squeezed herself into the hole as Knuckles let everyone at the bottom of the tree know what was going on.

"Good luck, Cream!" Tails cheered.

Rouge didn't hesitate in being helpful by saying, "I know you can do it!"

"All I'm saying is that I hope I can make it through this…" Cream whispered to herself as she crawled down the thin passageway and descended into the darkness of the Great Tree.


	5. Rabbit Season

Chapter 5: Rabbit Season

**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own SEGA or any of its characters… It's kind of annoying, typing that every chapter, but I don't want to get sued or anything.

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:** This entire chapter (except for the end) revolves around Cream as she explores the Great Tree in search of the first Chaos Emerald. There will be parts of the story focused on specific characters throughout the book. Each hero will be hit once. In order, they are Cream (chapter 5), Tails (chapter7), Rouge (chapter 8), Shadow (chapter 10), Amy (chapter 15), Knuckles (end of chapter 17-start of chapter 18), and Sonic (chapter 20). Now that I'm done typing that long list, you can sit back and enjoy the actual chapter! Oh, and by the way, **thoughts of the characters will be italicized for the rest of the story.** It's important you know that for the chapters written from a specific character's point of view, such as this one. These chapters will also include a lot more detail while the others are mostly dialogue. This chapter may seem shorter, but I think it actually has the most words out of all of the chapters so far.

"Alright, here I go…" Cream whimpered as she heard the faint cheers of encouragement from her friends at the entrance of the tunnel. As she shuffled down the narrow passageway, the voices of her loved ones grew softer until they disappeared.

"There go the voices of my friends…" she said to herself. "I can't believe I'm doing this. For all I know, that might be the last time I ever hear them…" She suddenly found a tear rolling down her cheek. She brushed it away and kept advancing through the corridor.

After about five minutes or so of crawling, she put her hand down to pull herself forward only to realize that there was nothing there. Before realizing what she'd done, she tumbled out of the hallway and fell ten feet to the hard, wooden floor of a large room. A loud echo sounded and bounced around for a few seconds before dying down.

As she stood up and brushed herself off, she thought, _This room seems pretty big judging by the echo, but I can't be sure. I need to find a light source_…

She wasn't wrong. Inside the Great Tree, there wasn't much space for light to get through from the outside. There was extremely low visibility. Cream couldn't even see her own hand in front of her face. _I wish Rouge were here,_ she thought. _She's a bat. She wouldn't have a problem seeing in here, but of course, she can't fit in the entrance hole…_

After gathering up her courage, she dared to take a couple of steps forward. She almost immediately stepped off of a cliff. For a half a second, her entire life flashed before her eyes, but her adrenaline kicked in and she grabbed on to the edge to avoid tumbling to her doom. As she pulled herself up, she thought, _I don't really know how deep that pit was, but the air was colder on my legs when they were hanging off the ledge, so I know it's pretty deep. Deep enough that I'll die if I fall in… I mean, I can fly and all that, but not for nearly as long Tails…_

Maneuvering around the room took a lot of trial and error. Cream had to hold her hands out in front of her to avoid walking into walls and at the same time take short, light, steps so she could figure out if there was ground where she was about to step. Eventually, she reached the other side of the wooden death trap and came across a tall hallway. She was reluctant about entering, but she didn't have anywhere else to go.

As she walked, she thought, _Jeez! All these hallways and rooms… inside a tree? That's definitely not a natural occurrence! Well, eight hundred foot tall trees, flying rabbits and foxes, supersonic talking hedgehogs, and animals that wear clothes aren't really natural either, but this is different. Something or someone other than nature made this… could it have been Eggman?_

While pondering what was natural and man-made, she hit her head on a squishy substance. A loud buzzing noise caused her long rabbit ears to perk up. She looked up only to see a pair of glowing red eyes staring at her. She wanted to yell in horror, but she kept quiet. _That's a bug,_ she thought. _A really big bug. But eyes don't glow like that… could this bug be man-made? Like Shadow? Well, at least the glow provides a little bit of light…_

Her thoughts were interrupted by the bug unleashing a horrifying screech through the air. Out of nowhere, she felt an explosion of pain in her chest caused by the creature stabbing her with its stinger. She leapt backwards so the sharp point wouldn't go completely through her, but it still went in a good two inches. She screamed and fell on her knees. Never before had she ever experienced this much pain in her entire life. After recovering enough to stand up, she swung her hand in front of her, hoping to hit the bug, but she missed. _Whatever that thing is… it can see in the dark… oh god, this hurts!_

She tried to land a hit on the bug by spinning around in a circle with her arms outstretched like a tornado. This time, she was successful. With a loud thwack, her hand contacted the soft substance of the bug's skin, causing it to fall to the ground. The glow of the bug's eyes became dimmer and dimmer until it was gone completely. Once again, Cream was surrounded by darkness, but that didn't worry her as much now because of her injury. She tried touching her chest to see how bad it was, and she felt a cold, sticky substance that she instantly recognized as blood.

After resting for a couple of minutes, she limped on ahead to see what else she was up against, still taking short steps and keeping her hands on the walls of the hallway. Suddenly, one of the two walls ended, so she decided to peer around the corner and see what was there.

Light.

Cream didn't know anything about it other than the fact that it was a light source, so she scurried around the corner and over to the makeshift flashlight. As she approached it, she noticed that it wasn't an object that you hold in your hand, but around your neck. It was a crudely made necklace. The light source was a small, bright blue gem embedded into the necklace like a bead. Although it was barely the size of a piece of popcorn, it gave out more than enough light to help with finding the Emerald.

Overwhelmed with joy, Cream instantly reached toward the necklace to put it on, but she hesitated when she about to grab it. She thought, _Could it be some kind of trap? I mean, no one puts a treasure like this in an ancient room without linking a trap to it! I really don't want to risk getting more injured than I am now, but that thing is the probably the only light source in this entire tree beside the bugs' eyes and the Chaos Emerald…_

After a minute or so of debating, she finally closed her eyes, prepared for the worst, and grabbed the necklace.

Nothing happened.

Cream sighed in relief. _Guess it's my lucky day_, she thought. _Well, I got stabbed in the chest, but that's different. I just hope this will be over soon…_

As she continued down the main hallway where she had fought the bug, she realized that her journey had barely begun. As the corridor ended, Cream took the necklace off and shined the light around to see what stood before her. She figured out that she was entering a medium-sized circular room, but there was no floor except for where she was standing. She shined the light over the edge of the cliff only to find dozens of platforms sticking out from the wall that lead down the pit. _Well_, she thought. _Guess I'm going down. Now I'm glad I have the necklace, because this would be really hard without it…_

With caution, she grabbed on the ledge she was standing on and lowered herself down to another platform. As soon as she put her full weight on it, it gave out under her and started to crumble. Without hesitating, she jumped off and touched down on another more solid ledge. As she recovered and hugged the wall, she thought, _Wow. I would have never survived that if I hadn't been able to see._

She used her "lantern" to scan the area for another platform that wouldn't almost kill her. There happened to be one that was about fifteen feet away from her horizontally and ten feet below her, so she cautiously started to fly there. However, her chest pain distracted her and her ears that were used for flying gave out, causing her to fall the rest of the way to the platform. _Man, _she thought as she slammed into the ledge. _I need to be careful while I have this injury. I'm losing blood like crazy, and it's starting to go to my head. I need to hurry if I want to avoid bleeding to death!_

When she stood up, she was greeted by another giant bug. It tried to sting her like the other one did, but now that Cream could see, she dodged it with no effort and retaliated by grabbing the stinger with her hand and slamming the insect against the chamber wall. After the red eyes dimmed away, she said to herself, "Wow. I guess the fact that I can see now makes it easier to beat these…"

For the next ten minutes or so, Cream slowly but surely descended the cylindrical room, the entire time wondering if she would turn out okay. Eventually, she reached the bottom and started down another hallway.

Ten feet later, the ground underneath her feet shook violently, causing a ledge from the previous room to detach from the wall and crash down in front of the entrance to the passage. No matter what Cream did, she couldn't move it. _Great,_ she thought. _Now I can't go back…_

She turned around and continued down the corridor until she saw a miniscule speck of green light. Without pausing to think about what it might be, she sprinted as fast as she could (which wasn't very fast because of her pains) toward it. The hallway opened up into a massive room that was almost as wide as the Great Tree itself. Cream thought, _I must be at the base of the tree now, where it's thickest._ As she gawked at the room, she ran directly into a pedestal, causing her to fall over and a glowing green crystal that she immediately recognized as the Chaos Emerald to drop into her hand.

"Huh. Well, what do you know?" she muttered to herself. "Now, how do I get out of here?"

She searched the perimeter of the room, but no exits of any kind could be found. She tried to break the wooden wall because, judging by how massive the chamber was, it had to be pretty thin. However, she just wasn't strong enough, especially with her stabbed chest distracting her. She was stuck there.

"Need some help?" a voice asked from behind her.

Cream instantly turned around. In front of her was a super-sized robotic version of the bugs she had battled earlier. It had numerous weapons on it ranging from poison jets to missile launchers, and its stinger was at least ten feet long but still skinny enough to pierce someone with it. But the worst part was that Eggman was sitting in a cockpit inside the head, which could be seen by looking through the stained-glass eyes.

"It's you…" she whispered. Silently, she thought, _How did I not see that thing behind me?_

"Of course it's me!" Eggman shouted. "So, how was your journey through the tree?"

"Hated it… I got stabbed…"

Eggman glared down at Cream's chest, which was soaked with blood. "I see…"

After a short pause, Cream said, "You made this network of rooms in the tree, didn't you?"

"Well, duh! I did everything! I built this obstacle course inside the tree, drilled the entrance hole in the side of the tree that only you could get in, possessed the bugs, built this thing in case you got to the Emerald I hid, and-"

"Wait, what?" Cream yelled. "Sorry for interrupting, but did you just say that you hid the Emerald here?"

Eggman's eyes grew wide. "No…"

"You had the Emerald in the first place! What the heck are you up to?"

"I'm not telling."

Cream just sighed. _There's no point in trying to wriggle the answer out of him,_ she thought. _It's not like he'll tell you. But if he had the Emerald in the first place, why did he just hide it again for us to find? Something's fishy here…_

"So," Cream said monotonously, trying to change the subject. "What's this machine thing?"

"I call it the Egg Termite."

"But… that's not a termite."

"Do I look like I care?"

"Yes…"

After a long and awkward silence, Eggman shouted, "I SHALL DESTROY YOU!" Inside the cockpit of the Termite, he simultaneously pressed about fifteen different buttons. "Survive if you can!"

At the same time, poison jets sprayed from four different cannons positioned on the weapon, spikes shot out of indentations in the wings, and the stinger started to flail around randomly. An additional wall of wind shot out of the body and threw Cream across the room, causing her to violently slam into the wall and fall to the ground.

"Ow…" she mumbled as she stood up. "That…wasn't…very…nice…"

"It's not supposed to be nice! It's supposed to kill you!"

Cream was going to give Eggman a lecture about respecting others, but she had to dodge an incoming poison jet. After rolling on the ground, she looked up directly into the barrel of a spike cannon positioned on the Termite fifteen yards away. Eggman raised an eyebrow and pounded a button on his control panel, forcing an especially sharp spike to shoot out of the barrel and fly at Cream's head.

Cream instinctively grabbed her necklace, which had been thrown off of her neck by the gust of wind, and swung it in front of her. The glowing gem contacted the spike with perfect accuracy and knocked it away from her. Without risking hesitating and feeling proud of herself, she scrambled up on her feet, holding the necklace in her hand instead of around her neck in case she had to block anything else.

Eggman shot more spikes at her, but she didn't want to block them unless she had to, so she ducked out of the way. One of the makeshift knives wedged into the wall next to her, giving her an idea.

"Hey, Mr. Eggman!" Cream shouted. Eggman slowly rotated the Termite around to face her.

"What is it?"

"Well… I'm standing right in front of you. Aren't you tempted to shove that sharp-looking stinger through my head?"

"Kind of, yeah…"

"Why don't you?"

"Because you're up to something."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"Okay, fine, I am…" Cream said in a sarcastic tone. "I better run away before you kill me!"

"What?"

"Oh, no!" Cream shouted as she ran as slowly as she could to her left. "He's gonna get me!"

"Yeah, like that's really-"

"Aaahg!" Cream said as she pretended to slip and fall over. "Oh, no! This is the end!"

"Look, you're starting to-"

"THE HORROR!" Cream screamed. "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

"STOP TAUNTING ME OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!" Eggman yelled with fury.

"I'M DONE FOR!" Cream shouted, trying not to laugh at the same time. "TELL MY FRIENDS THAT I'VE LOVED THEM FOR EVERYTHING!"

"THAT'S IT, YOU'RE GOING DOWN, YOU LITTLE CHIPMUNK!" Eggman screeched as he smashed both of his hands down on a gigantic red button on the control panel so hard that he almost broke it. Cream stood up and dove out of the way just as the hard, metallic stinger of the Termite collided with the soft, wooden wall of the Great Tree at full power.

Meanwhile...

"I hope Cream's okay…" Amy whined as she stood outside the Great Tree along with the rest of the crew.

"Everyone does," Tails reminded her. "Except for Shadow. He has no heart."

"That's cold…" Shadow replied.

"Your face is cold."

"Ooooooooooooooh. Burn." Sonic said calmly.

"Yeah, you know, insults are like dry ice," Rouge commented. "They're cold, and they burn."

"Very true… That's the best simile I've heard in a long time…"

"HOLY SOCK MONKEYS ON A POGO STICK!" Knuckles shouted as he pointed at the Great Tree. Everyone turned to look as the side of the tree literally exploded. Cream dashed out of the hole with the Chaos Emerald in her hand, the Egg Termite hot on her heels.

"HELP ME!" Cream screamed to her friends.

"I'm on it!" Knuckles yelled as he leaped into the air and grabbed onto the Egg Termite's head. "OH, YEAH!" he shouted as he punched a hole clean through one of its glass eyes. Rouge glided over to the scene and yanked Eggman out of his seat in the cockpit and through the hole that Knuckles had just made. She effortlessly threw him down to the ground, where Sonic, Tails, Shadow, and Amy were waiting. Knuckles and Cream slowly strolled over to him, as well as Rouge herself.

"Not today!" Eggman shouted as he jumped up, punched Knuckles in the face, ran between him and Cream, and hopped into the Termite. Before anyone could stop him, he pushed the eject button, causing the cockpit (which turned out to be his hovercraft) to shoot out of the robot and fly away. "This isn't the end!" he called to them.

After a long pause, Tails glanced at Cream and asked, "Holy moly, Cream, why are you bleeding?"

"I kind of got stabbed in the chest…" Cream replied. "It hurts to think about it!"

"We need to get you back to the Tornado! There's a first aid kit installed in there. We have to hurry, or you'll die from excessive blood loss!"

"Okay…"

"Let's go. Once we get a bandage on that thing, we can head to Monolith Cave for the second Emerald. Nice job, by the way!"

"Thanks!"

"Alright then," Sonic concluded. "One Emerald down, six to go! Let's get back to the Tornado!"

"Agreed!" Knuckles yelled. "I miss my Kool-Aid already!"

**AUTHOR'S NOTES (again):** I really like how this chapter turned out, and I still can't believe I wrote it so quickly. Two days and that's it. Anyways, Chapter 6 will be posted as soon as I finish writing it, so hang in there and I'll get back to you soon! OH, YEAH!


End file.
